Bacalar

Make
Bentley
Segment
Compact

There have been a few stories in various countries detailing how certain unscrupulous individuals have used the COVID-19 pandemic to enrich themselves by buying luxury supercars with funds meant to help the community. Although such actions may have contributed in a small way to the sales figures of these high-end brands, it's really just a drop in the ocean compared to what the data says.

Companies like Porsche have recorded outstanding sales figures for 2020, but the German automaker isn't alone. Ferrari performed brilliantly, and BMW M smashed sales records too. The pertinent question here is, how is it possible that so many luxury automakers have recorded such phenomenal sales figures in 2020, despite a global economic meltdown?

Bloomberg reports that most of the major players, brands that aren't typically forthcoming about their success, have all done exceptionally well last year while the rest of the world has suffered. And it's not slowing down. Adrian Hallmark of Bentley says that the automaker's "sales right now are some 30 percent above last year, even bearing in mind [that] last year was a record. It would take an even bigger asteroid than the Covid one to knock us off track again."

Bugatti's Stephan Winkelmann shared similar sentiments, remarking that 2020 was the company's "third record-breaking year in a row." Porsche's head honcho Oliver Blume said that the German marque's results for last year were a "fantastic accomplishment" at the end of "an exceptional year", while formerly beleaguered Aston Martin "is no longer on the critical list".

It seems that we're living in a golden era for luxury car sales, as analysts at Technavio had predicted in the middle of last year when they said that the US luxury car market would grow by around 6.7 million units from 2020 to 2024. The stats support this theory, with Ferrari's share price jumping by 27 percent last year while Lamborghini's order book is already full until October. Rolls-Royce is the only brand that didn't perform quite so well with deliveries dropping by 26 percent year-over-year for 2020, an issue that the British brand attributes to the transition from the old Ghost sedan to the new one.

As for what has caused such a strong spike in luxury cars, it seems that the rich were simply bored during the pandemic and decided to order new cars, even with the knowledge that shutdowns and halted production would mean delays. Both Bentley and Bugatti's bosses said that their clients were deciding where to spend and simply decided that there was no obvious reason not to invest in new cars, especially since limited-edition high-end cars like the $2 million Bentley Bacalar are practically guaranteed to increase in value. Sure, it sounds a little pompous to regular folk like us, but what would you do if you were sitting in a mansion with nothing to do and a bank account with too many zeroes in it?